By Eugene Lucas, DNP, CRNP, FNP-BC, APMHNP-BC
We are being bombarded by information from many sources in our daily lives. Some of it is helpful, some is challenging, and some is anxiety-provoking. The many avenues available to get information may help or harm our efforts to get factual, evidence-based, believable information. Misinformation is just as prevalent as information and sometimes feeds into our desires rather than meeting our needs for reliable facts. Technology search platforms monitor our data entry and watch habits, creating algorithms that open information gateways to our personal accounts. Political, social, employment, national, and local news, whether factual or misinformation, may no longer be fact-checked. We are at the mercy of these platforms and our own thinking in deciding what we believe or don’t believe.
When people encounter information while using social media, they describe many kinds of thoughts, with these thoughts often having non-intuitive relationships with their subsequent responses, such as liking or choosing to click on a link. People have stopped seeking out news, assuming instead that important information will be pushed to them via their social media networks. This approach to news makes people susceptible to the vast amounts of misinformation online. Our fears may be amplified and provoke increased anxiety levels.
In Greene et al.’s 2024 study looking at students’ use of social media, factual content seemed to lead to disengagement due to familiarity, but participants were still much more willing to like true posts, possibly to help disseminate information they perceived as helpful or important. Those posts that participants were unfamiliar with were far more likely to prompt further engagement through reading, a result that aligns with prior research showing that novelty promotes engagement with social media (Greene et al., 2024)
The way we think may be the only way to keep our anxiety at acceptable levels. Critical thinking is a kind of thinking in which you question, analyze, interpret, evaluate, and make a judgment about what you read, hear, say, or write. Being able to use critical thinking does not mean being negative or focusing on faults. It means being able to frame your thinking so that you can break down a problem or a piece of information, interpret it, and use that interpretation to arrive at an informed decision or judgment.
Questioning your sources is a key component of critical thinking because not all sources of information are equally credible, accurate, or relevant (Monash University, 2025). True analysis means to examine it in detail, explain it, and interpret it. Really examining your sources means examining their components like arguments, claims, reasons, methods, and evidence, and explaining how they work together to make a point or an argument. The evaluation piece looks at the parts of the claim along with the source, making a judgment about their quality, value, or significance.
It is in all of our best interests to put some time and effort into critical thinking to be able to understand and properly vet our news and media sources. Knowledge is powerful; misinformation damages our emotions and relationships in enduring ways. We can control the process and maintain our mental health along the way.
References
Greene, J. A., Hollander-Blackmon, C., Kirk, E. A., & Deekens, V. M. (2024). What are they thinking? Exploring college students’ mental processing and decision-making about COVID-19 (mis)information on social media. Journal of Educational Psychology, 116(1), 76–101. doi.org/10.1037/edu0000842
Innes, J. M., & Morrison, B. W. (2024). Teaching psychology that does not exist: Counterfactuals as catalysts for critical thinking in psychology education. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology. doi.org/10.1037/stl0000402
Monash University. Student Academic Success. Evaluate the arguments of others. Accessed October 7, 2025, at monash.edu/student-academic-success/enhance-your-thinking/critical-thinking/evaluate-arguments-of-others
Eugene Lucas, DNP, CRNP, FNP-BC, PMHNP-BC, is an associate professor who coordinates the distance education Psychiatric/Mental Health Nurse Practitioner program at Wilkes University and is a board-certified psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner.
Originally published @ Psychology Today
